For the past several years I have been developing large-scale oil paintings and small intricate depictions of figures, and their clothing in a highly realistic manner capturing and evoking the importance of a film still or cropped photo. Inspired by film and comic book images since my childhood, I try to crop my images to create a more dynamic perspective, putting the viewer intimately closer to my subjects--close enough to see individual hairs or the smallest detail on a shirt collar.
Though my subjects are often celebrities and models, my paintings and drawings re-stage cultural performances like headshots and advertisements, while reintroducing the celebrity subject with a bit of privacy and diplomacy. When I take an image and crop out the eyes, the face becomes truly expressive, ironically, the same happens when I crop an image and only paint the eyes. The minds of each viewer fills in the gap for that which has been removed.
Jason Bryant grew up in rural North Carolina. Art was always around Bryant, encouraged by his mother, who would often draw comic book figures for him as a kid. At around age six, Bryant would observe with anticipation the joy his uncle derived from creating drawings for him and from watching Bryant create images. These memories serve as seminal moments for Bryant’s development as an artist at an early age.
As Bryant grew older, movies and drawing became a way for him to escape the realities of a broken home. Bryant’s fascination with drawing was replaced by a love for painting, which was encouraged in him by his mentor Paul Hartley during his years at East Carolina University, where Bryant received his BFA in 1999. While painting, Bryant would listen to the soundtrack of different films, letting himself be completely absorbed in the emotions and images the music evoked and translating the energy into images on his canvas.
The flux of the world is based upon dialogue, how we interact, and the change from these interactions. The one thing that has remained a constant tool in bringing about change is art. Art is the vehicle that we use to educate ourselves. It is the consummate mirror of our world, reflected back at us. Bryant believes in trying to build that mirror, to illuminate people’s understanding of the world.
After receiving his BFA, Bryant moved to Baltimore, where he lived for five years before. In the beginning of his career in Baltimore, Bryant did an internship for the Mayors Advisory Committee on Art and Culture, where he was introduced to many of the contemporaries he works with today. His relationship with the community of artists was furthered when he was accepted to the Maryland Institute College of Art, where he received his MFA in May 2004 from the Mount Royal School of Art graduate program.
After Bryant received his MFA, he moved to Brooklyn, New York to further enhance his painting skills. Since moving to New York, Bryant has worked as an artist assistant to Kehinde Wiley.
While living in Baltimore and Brooklyn, Bryant has exhibited at such institutions as The Greenville Museum of Art in Greenville, North Carolina; The Period Gallery in Omaha, Nebraska; Transport Gallery in Los Angeles, California; Maryland Art Place, The James E. Lewis Fine Arts Museum and The Contemporary Museum in Baltimore, Maryland; The Raandesk Gallery of Art in New York, Like the Spice Gallery in Brooklyn, Tribes Gallery in New York and Gallery 32 in London, England.
In recent years, Bryant’s paintings have been published in such publications as the Baltimore City Paper, Link Magazine, Direct Art Magazine, New Art International, and NY Arts magazine.
